Critters: Bounty Hunter

(English isn't my first language, so please excuse any mistakes.) I am a huge Critters fan since the first movie, released in 1986 (I was 10 years old back in the days). Jordan Downey & his friends did a hell of a job with their little short film, named Critters: Bounty Hunter (2014). You have this special Critters movie feeling right from the beginning = a bit of horror, some sci-fi & a lot of Krites comedy. There are some cool new effects and the classic Bounty Hunter makes you feel home again. The team added some nice and detailed updates as for the outfit and the Bounty Hunters weapon. Also our beloved or should I say "feared" Krite looks fantastic (still a greedy little bastard). The puppet was specially designed for this short movie and it looks pretty damn awesome. What fans really don't want to see are any fake or weak looking CGI Critters and nobody has to worry, because Troy Smith did a fantastic job on creating a very cool & classic Critter puppet, which looks just the way we all remember them and fall in love with back in the late 80's (hungry and funny little rascals / space rats^^). As for the music, Nick Soole performed, arranged and produced a great cover of the classic song 'Power Of The Night' known from the original Critters film. I really hope these guys will be involved in any possible future Critters projects, because they really know what Krites fans are looking for (they are fans themselves). As for a possible full length new Critters film, I hope they will be able to add some cool mechanics for each puppets arms-, hands- and face movements^^ but that should be not a problem at all with just a larger budget. All in all this lil short film feels damn good, right and most important like CRITTERS! Thank you for bringing back a lot of cool childhood memories and I am really hungry for a new Critters movie right now!!!

I grew up with Critters movies so I have a real soft spot for them. Amazing movies? Absolutely not but they're a lot of fun.

This 2014 fan made film is something to behold, it looks like a modern AAA Hollywood film. Seriously, the production values are incredible and not what you'd expect from a fan film at all. The last fan film I saw of this high a quality was Never Hike Alone (2017).

It tells the very brief story of a bounty hunter stalking his prey in suburbia and is a very good effort. Clearly a lot of love for the franchise and talent went into crafting these 6 minutes.

But that's the problem, I like shorts but you need to be very careful how you handle them. In 6 minutes you can't exactly tell a story so instead you tend to get just a series of motions before the credits roll.

The creators handle this competently enough, but there still isn't a story. It's I guess you could say closer to an after credits scene of a movie.

I cannot knock the production or any aspect of its creation, they've done an incredible job here but 6 minutes can only go so far.

The Good:

Looks amazing

Loyal to the source material

The Bad:

Restrictive running time impacts it hard

Things I Learnt From This Short:

We NEED a new feature length Critters movie. Not WANT but NEED.

An excellent little mini movie & makes me so want another Critters film!!! Grew up watching the CRITTERS films on video & love the franchise. This little film just shows how great a modern Critters could look & it's filmed brilliantly & just so cool love it & need more Critters flicks

The Critters saga was inactive for 22 years after it concluded, but after announcing a possible return, the opportunity to make this short film that revives the essence of the first film was not wasted. This short film was made by someone who feels a lot of love and admiration for the saga and knew how to respect the lore quite a bit. The bounty hunter appears with a facial design made with well-kept CGI that manages to greatly surpass the design that the white faces of the other bounty hunters had in the other films. Although there are only two critters, the design of the creatures looks quite professional and resembles the original versions. The short film really maintains many technical aspects of the saga in an admirable way. Although Critters: Bounty Hunter is not an official installment of the franchise, it is really worth seeing to revive a saga that was forgotten. My final rating for this short film is an 8/10.